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Thursday, May 08, 2008
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Rushmi survives a scare

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The second-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi was forced to wage a grim battle due to injuries that suddenly cropped up and threatened to cut short her aspirations in the BSNL-Kerala Open international women’s tournament at the TTC courts here on Wednesday.

With her rival Shalini Sahoo making the most of the chances offered by the litany of unforced errors committed by Rushmi, it looked as if another upset was in the offing. However, the 30-year-old veteran dug deep into her reserves to notch up a 6-1, 6-7(6),7-6(2) victory.

Resilient

It was a show of tremendous staying power and Rushmi proved that she is made of sterner stuff, as she battled hard against the writhing pain caused by a shoulder strain and the recurrence of the elbow injury that she has been bothering her for some time.

Rushmi looked all set to be cruising to victory after winning the first set 6-1 and taking a 3-1 lead in the second.

Shalini won the next four games. After taking a medical time-out, Rushmi broke back Shalini in the ninth but could do no more as the Delhi girl forced the issue into the tie-breaker and took the match into the decider.

In the final set, the games went with serve until Rushmi broke Shalini in the 11th game. Rushmi failed to hold serve in the very next game to push the set into another tie-breaker. The second seed then closed out the match and booked a passage into the quarterfinals.

The results (Indians unless otherwise specified):

Singles (Pre-quarterfinals): Isha Lakhani bt Asha Nandakumar 6-2, 6-1; Prerana-Mythri Appineni bt Kumari-Sweta Solanki 7-6(2), 6-1; Sanaa Bhambri bt Magda Okruashvili (Geo) 6-3, 0-6, 6-4; Geeta Manohar bt Trang Hyunh Phuong Dai (Vie) 6-4, 6-2; Min-Hwa Yu (Kor) bt Parul Goswami 1-6, 6-3, 6-3; Poojashree Venkatesha bt Parija Maloo 6-1, 6-1; Miki Miyamura bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthy 6-1, 6-2; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Shalini Sahoo 6-1, 7-6(6), 7-6(2).

Doubles (quarterfinals): Magda Okruashvili (Geo) & Poojashree bt Shahin Ansari & Dipti Srivastava 6-1, 6-0; Sanaa & Kumari-Sweta Solanki bt Shweta Kakhandki Gadigeppa & Asha Nandakumar 6-4, 4-6 (10-4); Prerana-Mythri Appineni & Goele Lemmens (Bel) 7-6(3),6-1; Miki Miyamura (Jpn) & Min-Hwa Yu (Kor) bt Trang Huynh Phuong Dai (Vie) & Nicola Mooney(Gbr) 6-1, 6-3.

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